The enemy of Flash's enemy...

If it weren’t for that pesky “Duet,” “Infantino Street” would be a clear contender for the strongest installment of The Flash: Season 3. Even as the series rapidly built towards the final showdown between Barry Allen and his evil doppelganger, this episode was able to deliver a terrifically enjoyable team-up between Barry and the late Leonard Snart. The result was a very well-balanced episode that hopefully will serve as a sign of things to come for the series in Season 4.

I was immediately struck by the unusual way this episode opened, with somber music playing over a montage of Team Flash members bonding and bracing themselves for the inevitable return of Savitar. That really helped to set the mood right off the bat. The fact that the episode was book-ended with a reprise of that song was an especially nice touch. It brings to mind the ending of the Arrow episode “Disbanded.” It’s fun seeing the shows toy with their opening and closing segments like this, and I wouldn’t mind seeing that experimental approach continue next year.

I’ll focus on the Captain Cold/King Shark business before getting to this week’s Savitar developments. Perhaps the single biggest mistake this show has made over the past three years is not paying enough attention to Snart and his fellow Rogues. And with Snart dead and Mick Rory a permanent member of the Legends of Tomorrow, the hope of a Rogues-centric season is pretty faint at this point. But at least Greg Berlanti and friends have found ways to utilize Snart after his heroic sacrifice. His guest role this week served as fitting contrast to his recurring role on Legends. There, we saw a Snart before his time with the Legends mellowed him out and brought forth the hero within. Here, Snart is much further along in his journey from villain to hero, and that was reflected in his dynamic with Flash.

It might have seemed strange to cram both Snart and King Shark into the penultimate episode of the season, but both characters wound up fitting pretty logically into the conflict. Barry needed a master thief, and who better to liberate a doodad from the most heavily fortified vault in the country than Captain Cold. And what better villain to throw a wrench into their carefully laid plans than King Shark? It was great to see this villain make a return appearance in such an unexpected place. The battle with King Shark offered a much-needed jolt of levity into an otherwise grim episode. The fact that the writers managed to include so many of the killer shark movie tropes despite the whole conflict taking place on dry land made this battle all the more entertaining.

While I hope this isn’t the case, it’s easy to see this episode serving as the final bow for Leonard Snart. If so, at least it delivered a worthy farewell to the character. Barry has always fought hard to make Snart see the good in himself. Now Snart was able to repay the favor by helping Barry avoid slipping into darkness and compromising his ideals. And thanks to their final exchange, Snart’s final words - “There are no strings on me.” - take on new context.

It was surprising just how deep into the final Flash/Savitar encounter this episode got by the end. Maybe it’s more accurate to say that the fateful meeting on Infantino Street isn’t the last time these two speedsters will clash. The buildup to that encounter yielded some great character drama, and nowhere better than the scene where Joe and Iris bonded on Earth 2. It was a very sweet moment for both characters that gradually turned tragic as they both reflected on what awaited them. Between his singing, his lighthearted charm and his fatherly pain, Jesse L. Martin was really on fire in that scene.

This episode also went a long way towards fleshing out Savitar himself. I still wish the writers hadn’t waited until the last-minute to reveal the character’s identity, but these past couple weeks have made up for lost time. Now that we see the pitiful, scarred man beneath the godly armor, Savitar’s grudge against Team Flash holds more weight. And we saw multiple times here that he’s not so far gone that he doesn’t feel doubt or remorse about what he’s about to do. The same goes for Killer Frost, who seems less and less sure of her role in Savitar’s plans all the time. It’s pretty clear that, however Savitar is ultimately defeated, Caitlin will be instrumental in bringing him down (and hopefully finding some shred of redemption in the process).

But Caitlin’s redemption may come too late to save Iris, as we actually got to see her death play out this week. Even Barry’s Ghostbusters proton pack did nothing to rewrite her fate. That certainly sets the stage for an unexpected and very grim finale episode. The conflict has now shifted from “How do we save Iris?” to “How do we punish Savitar for what he did?” I can only hope that the writers somehow manage to wrap things up without completely saturating the show in darkness and despair. There’s been too much of that already this past year.

You do have to wonder how H.R. fits into all of this. He’s very much the X-factor of the conflict, having suffered a huge blow to his ego and acting very mysteriously when last seen right before Iris’ death. There’s a good chance H.R. might have pulled a switcheroo and disguised himself as Iris at the last minute. It does seem awfully convenient that the holographic disguise gadget made a return appearance this week. And if the show is going to keep up its tradition of introducing a new Harrison Wells every season, H.R. has to be taken off the board somehow. One way or another, we’ll find out in a week.

The Verdict

The Flash is in top form as the show prepares for the Season 3 finale. "Infantino Street" managed to balance out the darkness and character drama surrounding Savitar's return with an entertaining team-up between Barry and Captain Cold. This was a very eventful episode crammed with memorable character moments. The trick will be finding some way of maintaining the balance of light and dark in next week's finale.